Commanding heights episode 2 summary

They just don't get it. We could see how it worked and were well aware of its weak points. Gorbachev survived the plot, but his prestige was destroyed, and the Soviet Union's days were numbered.

Thesis of commanding heights

Only very recently has technology and trade changed our way of living. We could see how it worked and were well aware of its weak points. It was a society at the edge of the precipice. Socialism, planning, state control, government ownership -- these became the gospel. I was exhausted. And they would keep a kind of running document which said how they would reform this economy, how this economy has to be reformed, what is to be done to get out of the swamp that they were putting themselves in. The head of the Polish Communist Party called Moscow for directions. Several years before, it was even difficult to think about struggling with Red Directors. Even an inherently inefficient economic system like Communism can be productive given enough manpower and brute force, and thats exactly what happened. Because the benefits of globalization have not been distributed equitably, the gulf between rich and poor continues to threaten the stability of the system as a whole. Gaidar believed that an effectively free market would put an end to shortages. In the s British intelligence recruited a Russian double agent to penetrate this wall of secrecy.

The World Bank had closed its office, the IMF had pulled out its representative, and the American government and other friendly nations wouldn't answer the telephones. Gorbachev, open this gate.

Commanding heights episode 2 summary

Starting from then, there were no more shortages in Russia. The reality is that you cut yourself off from flows of technology, flows of investment, from flows of know-how, and instead of getting ahead you were falling back. Until then people had thought that only a military dictatorship like Chile's could impose such tough measures without tearing society apart. But the answer was different in Warsaw in It is made by Hindustan Motors, which started manufacturing in the same year as Japan's Toyota. The United Kingdom successfully held out during World War II and emerged victorious, but the war effectively caused the dismantling of its empire. Of special note were radio company stocks, which can be thought of the as tech stocks or dotcom stocks of the s: As soon as a radio company went public, speculative investors bid its stock price up to absurd levels that were totally disconnected from the companys real-world profitability and long-term business potential. You don't understand. For India, it was the end of a role model, the ideal of central planning shattered. Starting an independent businesseven a simple neighborhood shopbecame nearly impossible thanks to extreme government regulations. And he said: "No, no, you have to go much beyond that. That was one of the pivotal points. Now people were subjected to the "Permit Raj," because everything needed a government permit.

Overall, they see globalization as a positive movement that improves the standard of living for all the people connected to it, from the richest to the poorest. Import tariffs were cut. Boris Yeltsin became the voice of democratic resistance. Augusto Pinochet.

The same was also true for private businesses that were propped up by large state subsidies. The documentary includes a scene of Wolfensohn getting hit in the face with a pie by a protester.

Commanding heights bias

It was a very small car, a very small boat. For many Communist ideologues, this was humiliating. Chapter The Miracle Year [] And he said: "No, no, you have to go much beyond that. The government could print new money or borrow money from other countries and use it for mass purchases of goods and services from private firms, and it could also directly hire millions of new federal workers and pay them to build public works or perform other government functions. By the s, however, the Soviet economy was in shambles. Each country became locked into a disastrous cycle where neither consumers nor businesses had the money or will to break out of the situation. It turned out that this was Goni, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada -- a genius. But Gorbachev found the Chinese economy was being transformed under its leader, Deng Xiaoping. Import tariffs were swept away.